The biggest disaster in college football history happened in San Francisco, and almost no one knows about it.

Nearly two dozen people died in the Thanksgiving Day Disaster in 1900, which is still the deadliest accident at a sporting event in U.S. history. And it all happened against the backdrop of the rivalry between the Bay Area’s two biggest teams.

In 1900, Stanford and Cal weren’t even a decade into the rivalry that’s now known simply as the Big Game. But from the very first matchup in March 1892, during Stanford’s first school year, tens of thousands of fans converged in San Francisco at a stadium in the Mission District for the annual showdowns.

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Cal went winless in the first seven — four Stanford wins and three ties — but won back-to-back games in 1898 and 1899, with San Francisco Mayor (and Cal alum) James Phelan giving the school the famous Football Players statue (made by Berkeley resident Douglas Tilden) as a prize for winning two games in a row. The prize raised the stakes for the 1900 showdown, leading to some intense hype ahead of the Thanksgiving Day tilt.

A portrait of Stanford’s football team in 1900.

Both schools held rallies ahead of the game, the San Francisco Examiner reported, with 500 showing up at Stanford. In Berkeley, Cal brought out the Stanford Axe to rouse support and egg the fans on at what the San Francisco Call and Post called Berkeley’s largest rally ever at the time.

“I wish I could take it and give Stanford a whack,” Cal football player Warren W. Smith told the attendees, according to the Call. “But I’ll tell you fellows: if you show the spirit Thursday that you have shown to-day we’ll win that game.”

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The host site for the game was a football stadium (called Recreation Park, like many sports venues of the era) located on 16th Street between Folsom and Harrison Street in the........

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